CyberFootprint

The PROs are doing something wrong. Do you know what it is? Here is a couple of hints for you: mail merge, e-mail news releases blasts, follow-up calls. That’s right, by being irrelevant, we are paralysing the whole industry. Something must be done about it and RealWire is trying to change the status quo by educating the PROs. Kudos to them for making an effort!

An Inconvenient PR Truth from RealWire on Vimeo.

If I were to use a metaphor for the state of PR industry today, it would feature a vat of acid and a figure representing the PR industry bathing in it while screaming in agony. Those who think it is a harsh comparison do not realise the gravity of the situation. We have to face the truth and the truth is that most of the PROs are only a little more than regular spammers.

Attention is the new dollar

To truly understand our mistakes we need to go back in time when the term “attention economy” was coined. It revolutionised the way we should have been thinking about the media. Richard MacManus was right when he said:

A key point is that The Attention Economy is about the consumer having choice - they get to choose where their attention is ‘spent’. Another key ingredient in the attention game is relevancy. As long as the consumer sees relevant content, he/she is going to stick around – and that creates more opportunities to sell.

Let’s throw in one more variable into the equation – influence. The PROs all over the world are trying to answer the same age-old question. “What shall we do to maximise our influence over the given journalists or publics?”

Given that the journalists live in the same attention economy as we do, all we have to do is to subject our pitching efforts to getting noticed by the journalists and bloggers we want to get noticed by. In other words, pitching relevant material will secure the attention of the publicists. Once you have their attention, you are on the right track to gaining influence. It is, of course, a long-term process but you would have started off the right foot by being simply relevant.

From theory to practice

Now we know what are we doing wrong and why 55% of the journalists think of us as spammers. It’s time to look at how to fix this problem. The aforementioned theory looks easy, almost simplistic. Execution is even more simple but it’s also more elegant.

• Think about what the reporter could be interested in. Read some of his work. If you know him or her in person, ask directly.
• Prepare a press release and a pitch. Wait! Move the mouse cursor away from the “send” button and delete fifty other publicists in the BCC field.
• Individualise the pitch and make it feel like it’s an e-mail from one human to another.
• You can send the pitch now.
• Make sure you are available for the journalist’s queries but don’t follow up with an annoying “Did you get my press release?” call.

It looks simple, doesn’t it? This work is not as glamorous, as many aspiring PR people expect, and it can get very tedious. The flip side of it is that it’s incredibly efficient and truly awesome for building relationships with the publicists.

Every fool gets it, only the smart PROs do it

The most important part of the story is not the Who, What, Where, When or How. It’s the Why. Let’s see why only so few PR practitioners adopt the concept of relevancy and attention? There is an answer to that too. They simply do not have time or do not prioritise well.

I am well aware that there is a constant pressure to produce texts en masse and work on urgent issues instead of focusing on the important ones. Another reason is under-staffing of the most agencies, including the biggest ones, like Ogilvy, Grayling or Edelman. Many thanks to the economic recession for that.

Having said that, I would like to appeal to all Account Directors to let their execs connect with the publicists. It will seem like you are investing too much time into fixing their mistakes but in the end the juniors will prove that you haven’t wasted your money, time, nerves and faith. Since PR is about relationships, give them a chance to forge some and you won’t be disappointed.

What’s your remedy?

I am aware that the suggested countermeasures won’t probably be adopted by every single agency throughout the course of tomorrow but at least we know where we stand, why is it so and what to do with the current situation. Have you got any idea that will put the reputation of PROs back where it belongs?

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